# Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act 2009

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/tobacco-control-act/  
OnCo record `tobacco-control-act` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The 2009 US law that finally gave the FDA power over tobacco products, the cause of roughly a third of cancer deaths, including authority to ban flavours, restrict marketing and set nicotine levels, though it may not ban cigarettes or nicotine outright.

## Summary

United States, federal statute. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act was signed on 22 June 2009 (Public Law 111-31), adding chapter IX to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act after the Supreme Court had ruled in 2000 that the FDA lacked tobacco authority. It created the Center for Tobacco Products, funded by industry user fees. Primary text: the FDA overview and the Congress.gov record of H.R.1256.

What it changed: cigarettes with characterising flavours other than menthol and tobacco were banned at once; new tobacco products need premarket authorisation; the agency may set product standards including reduced nicotine, require graphic warnings and restrict marketing to the young, but the Act forbids banning all cigarettes or reducing nicotine to zero. The 2016 'deeming rule' extended jurisdiction to e-cigarettes, cigars and hookah, which is the legal basis for authorising or denying vaping products. A proposed rule to ban menthol cigarettes, which are smoked disproportionately by Black Americans, was published in April 2022 and withdrawn in January 2025; a proposed nicotine cap was published the same month.

Why it matters for cancer: smoking still causes about one in three cancer deaths in the United States, and lung cancer incidence has fallen as smoking has, so product standards and youth-access rules are among the largest cancer prevention levers any regulator holds. The arguments run between public health groups, who see the FDA as too slow and too exposed to litigation, and the industry and vaping advocates, who see the premarket process as arbitrary. The 2019 federal Tobacco 21 law amended the same chapter.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Also known as: Tobacco Control Act; Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act; FDA tobacco authority; Center for Tobacco Products; deeming rule; menthol ban; menthol cigarette ban; premarket tobacco product application
- Tags: law; us; prevention

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Smoking_Prevention_and_Tobacco_Control_Act
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Smoking_Prevention_and_Tobacco_Control_Act
- FDA: Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, overview: https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/rules-regulations-and-guidance-related-tobacco-products/family-smoking-prevention-and-tobacco-control-act-overview
- Congress.gov: H.R.1256, Tobacco Control Act (Public Law 111-31): https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/1256

## Connected records

- terms: [Alcohol-attributable cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/alcohol-attributable-cancer/), [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and the Kefauver-Harris Amendments](https://onco.cc/terms/fdca/), [Screening](https://onco.cc/terms/screening/), [Tobacco 21](https://onco.cc/terms/tobacco-21/)
- technologies: [Low-dose CT lung screening](https://onco.cc/technologies/low-dose-ct-screening/), [Smoking cessation in cancer patients](https://onco.cc/technologies/smoking-cessation-after-diagnosis/)
- institutions: [International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC / WHO)](https://onco.cc/institutions/iarc/)
- bottlenecks: [Prevention we already have is not deployed](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-prevention-adoption/)

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